Wednesday, June 12, 2013

Today I would like to welcome an author I enjoy reading and knowing, Jennette Mbewe. She is here today as a guest post to promote her book Secrets Kept. Be sure to enter the giveaway at the bottom. Jennette Mbewe and I are two of three authors of The Clockwork Dragon and we are giving a paperback with all three authors' signature, or you could win an e-copy of Jennette's short story, Desert Rose.

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With a curse, she will build an army. With the dagger, she will undo the last sacrifice. But first the sorceress must find the secret keeper.

Torn from her homeland and thrust into a betrothal against her wishes, Ayianna learns her family has a deadly secret that now has her on the run. She joins forces with Kael, an embittered half-elf, and Saeed, an elderly High Guardian, to seek answers to her father's death, the destruction of Dagmar, and the plains people's bizarre behavior.Ayianna discovers there is more at stake here than just her mother's disappearance and her familial duty to her betrothed. The sorceress has cursed the plains people, and it is a race against time to release them before the sorceress resurrects an ancient evil.

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I have asked Jennette to share with us how God has been a part of this journey in publishing Secrets Kept. Welcome Jennette.

First I want to thank Lynn Donovan for participating in the cover reveal yesterday and for allowing me to share with you all my journey today. J

About ten years ago, I was reading through the parable of the talents. The one with the master, the three servants and a bag of talents. Leaving on a trip, the master entrusted his servants with the talents, and upon his return asked: What did you do with what I gave you?

I felt that God was asking me the same. What are you doing with what I gave you? And I was like…um…what did you give me? What talent, gift, skill have you given me? I think I had been so busy looking at everyone else and their talents that I overlooked what God had given me. Writing. It wasn’t like I heard an audible voice or saw a burning bush, the word “writing” just popped into my head. So I sat down to write a book. I had no clue where to start. I knew I wanted to write an allegory. A kind of Pilgrim's Progress meets Lord of the Rings. Yeah. That idea kind of disintegrated, but we won't go there. Ha!

So, I had point A, point G and point Z of my story, but had no clue about the rest, but my husband told me to just sit down and write. And write I did. The basic story in its most roughest of forms poured from my mind and my fingers flew across the keyboard to keep up. Sometimes I'm thankful I was so naïve and hadn't had to deal with the inner editor yet.

In the next couple of years I rewrote and edited that book hundreds of times. Every time I got close to thinking I was done, I learned something new about writing fiction and had to rewrite it all over again. I researched the internet, read books on writing and tried to apply what I had learned. Each time there was always something new. I felt like I was plowing dirt with my head and not getting very far, very fast. But slowly, it started coming together, taking shape. Life was breathed into the characters, and the World of Nälu was becoming more real.

"If you don't find a career using this talent, it would be a sin!"

The journey had its ups and downs, and during the dark moments, I would find something that kept confirming what I was doing. Small things like coming across a box of childhood things, memories I had completely forgotten about. The little construction paper books I wrote and illustrated as an eight year old, sure I'd be an author one day. A short story that won first place in middle school, and a high school English paper the teacher wrote on, "If you don't find a career using this talent, it would be a sin!"

All of it, I had forgotten about, and now here I am, in the middle of living my dream. My first novel will be released this fall, and let me tell you, once the ball starts rolling, it ROLLS! Yikes! But it's all good. I can't wait to share with you all The World of Nälu, and all the adventures to be had there.

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Thank you Jennette. This is an awesome story. I think you have been a good and faithful servant with the talents God has given you. I love the note from your teacher. Thank God for people like this whom I believe He intentionally puts in our path for such a time as this!! :) I pray God's continued favor upon your publication. It's worth repeating: I love this story and I know other's will too.

Soon, I'll post my review of Secrets Kept. In the mean time, but sure to put it on your TBR list.

Jennette's Bio:

Writing as J. L. Mbewe, Jennette is an author, artist, mother, wife, but not always in that order. Born and raised in Minnesota, she now braves the heat of Texas, but pines for the Northern Lights and the lakes of home every autumn. She loves trying to capture the abstract and make it concrete.
She is currently living her second childhood with a wonderful husband and two precious children who don't seem to mind her eclectic collections of rocks, shells, and books, among other things.
While living life balanced between reality and dreams, she is creating worlds inhabited by all sorts of fantasy creatures and characters, all questing about and discovering true love amid lots of peril.
Her debut novel is coming this fall, and in the meantime be on the look out this summer for short stories set in the World of Nälu.

Tuesday, June 11, 2013

With a curse, she will build an army.

With the dagger, she will undo the last sacrifice.

But first the sorceress must find the secret keeper.

Ayianna discovers there is more at stake here than just her mother's disappearance and her familial duty to her betrothed. The sorceress has cursed the plains people, and it is a race against time to release them before the sorceress resurrects an ancient evil.
Torn from her homeland and thrust into a betrothal against her wishes, Ayianna learns her family has a deadly secret that now has her on the run. She joins forces with Kael, an embittered half-elf, and Saeed, an elderly High Guardian, to seek answers to her father's death, the destruction of Dagmar, and the plains people's bizarre behavior.